Qualitative Research Methods Every UX Researcher Should Know

Have you ever heard the phrase, "the numbers don't lie?" Well, this may come as a shock to you but, in fact, they do.

Numbers don't always tell the whole story for a business. For example, your new product could have sold out this year, but that doesn't necessarily make it successful. Customers could have disliked the product or thought it was faulty, causing them not to return to your company. As a business owner, you can't tell how satisfied customers are solely by looking at your number of sales.

Instead, you need a descriptive method for measuring customer perception. Understanding how customers feel, think and criticize your company is crucial to improving your products and services. That's why it's important to include qualitative research during your feedback collection process.

What Is Qualitative Research?

Qualitative research is a form of exploratory research that's designed to uncover the perceptions, motivations, and attitudes that drive consumer habits. Overall, qualitative research guides the creation of hypotheses, which can then be proved or disproved through quantitative research.

例如,一个简单的定性研究的问题n could be, "How do you feel about our products and services?" Then, the customer would have an open space to answer the question however they'd like. This lets people speak freely about a topic without being constrained to predetermined responses.

Qualitative research compliments quantitative research when analyzingcustomer behavior. It's important to understand both types of research to gain a complete picture of yourcustomer base.

Additionally, quantitative research generalizes data from large sample populations, while qualitative research typically uses smaller ones. That's because numerical findings are stronger when tested on a larger sample size. In comparison, it's much easier to analyze qualitative data when interviewing a smaller sub-section of your target audience. It can be tedious and time-consuming to manually go through thousands ofcustomer reviewswhen a focus group can represent the ideas of your customer base.

一般来说,quantitative research gathers and measures numerical data to offer narrow, focused results, while qualitative research gathers verbal and open-ended data to offer broader, big-picture results.

Here's an example of when both types of research would be used.

Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research Example

In the early 2000’s,Samsung wanted to redesign its televisions. So, the company turned to ethnography reports to see how its consumers were currently using its products and similar ones made by Samsung’s competitors.

Ethnography reports are a form of qualitative research that highlights where a company’s product fits within its consumers’ everyday lives. This research method involves interacting with consumers and observing them using a product firsthand, then recording any behaviors or patterns that are specific to different target audiences.

Samsung found through this research that the majority of its TVs were turned off throughout the day, so they were viewed more like pieces of furniture for customers rather than electronics. With that in mind, Samsung decided its next TVs would be visually stunning, with speakers that were hidden below the TV to give the product a sleeker, more modern design.

Since this design traded audio-quality for aesthetic appeal, Samsung’s management was skeptical of the move. So, they decided to test the new model in the European market to determine whether or not consumers would like this new style of TV. By conducting a test with a live target audience, Samsung’s market research was able to use quantitative research methods to prove that this concept was a success. Researchers used feedback tools like CSAT and Likert Scales to obtain quantitative feedback which showed empirical evidence supporting their new TV design.

Although all qualitative research shares a common goal, there are several types of research methods you can use. Let's break each one down in the next section.

5 Types of Qualitative Research Methods

1. Ethnography Research

Ethnographic research is the most common qualitative research method. This is where researchers enter the participants' natural environment to understand how they use a product. This provides context and cultural insights into your customers' everyday lives.

Similar to the Samsung example explained above, businesses typically use ethnographic research when trying to understandcustomer behavior. If a company wants to create a new product or feature, it can observe how its customers are currently using its products and record any points of friction found within the experience. Product development teams then take this data into consideration when creating a newproduct vision.

Ethnographic research can also be valuable for international businesses. For example, if you're operating in two different countries, you'll want to know how to effectively market your products to each target audience. There may be important cultural differences that impact how customers perceive or use your products and ethnographic research can help you understand these factors so you can successfully position your brand.

2. Narrative Research

Narrative research involves in-depth interviews and document analysis. Typically, one or two participants are interviewed over a long period of time—from weeks to months to years. This creates a conclusive, individualized story that offers clear themes and insights into how personal goals influence customers.

Narrative research is particularly helpful when creating buyer personas. Since you're following the customer's journey from start to finish, you can learn everything you need to know about your average consumer and create a compelling persona that captures your target audience.

It can also help you build acustomer journey map. This is a resource that outlines every significant interaction that a customer has with your business. Your marketing, sales, and customer service teams, then use this information to resolve recurring pain points and optimize interactions for customer delight.

3. Case Study Research

During case study research, employees read several case studies to gain a deep understanding of a topic or theme. Since these are real examples, researchers can find similarities between their business and the case study. This helps organizations simulate changes or campaigns before releasing them to the public.

Case studies are also a useful tool for customer advocacy. If you conduct a case study on a customer who has succeeded using your product, you can publish that story to your website for other visitors to see. That way, potential leads can read a factual account of another person or business that faced a similar problem as them and how they used your product to overcome it.

4. Phenomenological Research

Phenomenological research combines a variety of research methods—interviews, observation, reading, and more—to help you describe a place, action, or process. This description is based entirely on the perspectives of participants as it analyzes people who have first-hand experience with the activity.

One area where this type of research is useful is exploring how employees or customers feel about a particular company policy. By combining research methods into one full dataset, you get a more complete view of your target audience's perspective than if you were to rely on just interviews or observation.

For example, let's say your employees ask you to remove a "pointless" safety rule because they think it slows down their productivity. However, you know it's for their best interest to strictly enforce that policy. So, rather than cracking down on every employee who doesn't understand the rule, you can use your phenomenological research to educate employees on why that policy is important.

5. Grounded Theory Research

Grounded theory research goes a step beyond phenomenological research by uncovering explanations behind certain activities. To develop a theory, this method involves interviewing large samples of customers and performing in-depth document research to better comprehend how consumers use products.

Grounded theory research is typically a long-term play. As your business gathers more information over time, you start to recognize unique trends regarding customer needs and goals. Once you know why people are choosing your products, you can confidently create new products and features that encapsulate the core values that your customers are looking for.

Now that we're familiar with the types of qualitative research, let's see how we can apply them to businesses.

3 Qualitative Research Examples

1. Understanding Your Target Audience

A clothing store wants to understand why its customer base is mostly men when it markets its products as unisex. After performing an ethnographic study, it discovered that unisex products aren't as appealing to women due to the shapeless fit and duller colors. Now, the store can rebrand itself as a men's and women's clothing store and produce offers that better align with women's tastes.

2. Building Buyer Personas

A start-up company selling baby products wants to build abuyer persona为了更好地理解其目标观众。要做个is, the company decides to record the lives of two individuals who fit into its market: a woman, 32, married with a newborn baby and a man, 36, married with three young children. After interviewing these participants for over two years, the company has a complete picture of every roadblock their customers face when raising a child.

3. Understanding the Needs of Your Customer Base

A government agency wants to better support communities that have survived natural disasters. After interviewing several survivors, watching videos, and reading case studies on the topic, the agency realizes that these communities require more emotional support than physical support.

While donations are extremely beneficial, many of these families are traumatized by the experience and aren't sure how to restart their lives. Now, the agency can put into place emotional support options for these people, such as free counseling and hotline services designed specifically for natural disaster survivors.

现在你看看定性数据可以受益a company, you can start building questions to supplement your team's research.

Qualitative Research Questions

When asking qualitative research questions, it's important to ask effective questions that keep participants focused on the topic. Below are the two types of questions you can ask when obtaining qualitative data.

Central Questions

This is the overarching question that guides your research. It identifies the main theme you're researching, the target audience, and any other information relative to the study. Essentially, the central question is the broadest question you can ask about the topic.

Example:"How do you feel about our rewards program?"

Sub-Questions

Sub-questions complement the central question and focus on specific aspects of the overarching topic. These questions direct the participant to an individual detail that your team wants to know more about.

Example:"What type of rewards would you like to see in our loyalty program?"

While combining these two types of questions will give you an organized structure for obtaining data, your research will be useless if your questions are ineffective. If you're not sure where to start, take a look at the next section to review the universal qualities found in excellent qualitative research questions.

Qualities of Good Qualitative Research Questions

Here are some best practices you should keep in mind when creating qualitative research questions.

Open-Ended

The questions should be open-ended as this leaves more opportunity for participants to offer their own opinions rather than being constrained by preset answers.

Simply-Worded

Participants shouldn't have to work to understand what researchers are looking for. Make sure that the question is phrased simply and excludes any confusing jargon.

Offers Necessary Insights

As obvious as it might seem, the questions should bring in answers that will help you gain more information about the overarching topic. If a question is supplemental and not beneficial to your research, it's best to nix it.

If you're looking for additional research methods, read our guide touser testing.